Network contract activity in India – the world’s fastest-growing mobile market – has been coming thick and fast this week, with both state-owned incumbent operators and greenfield players awarding deals. Newcomer Unitech Wireless – soon to be majority-owned by Telenor – confirmed it has awarded five-year deals to Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei. Dow Jones Newswires reports that both deals are valued at US$150 million each, although Alcatel-Lucent’s contract is focused on GSM/EDGE networks in Kerala and Orissa circles whilst Huawei has been awarded a managed network services deal.

Elsewhere, TeleGeography reports that new operator SSTL (Sistema Shyam) has inked a seven-year deal with ZTE for the provision of network equipment and infrastructure. SSTL is aiming to complete its pan-Indian rollout by the third-quarter of 2010. Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent and MTNL today announced the commercial launch of the operator’s first IP-based mobile next generation network (NGN) to offer enhanced services to residential and enterprise customers in Mumbai.